“There’s a reason we separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, the enemies of the state tend to become the people.” -William Adama, Battlestar Galactica
Swatting, the act of calling in a fake hostage situation in order have a SWAT team sent to someone’s home, has been a trend among gamers for year, but it hasn’t gotten anyone killed until last night in Wichita, Kansas. Apparently, a Call of Duty gamer threatened to swat another, so the threatened gamer gave him an address other than his own. The first gamer called in a hostage situation, a SWAT team arrived, and as the dad answered the door, one cop gunned him down. Plenty of heat has rightfully been aimed at the gamers for engaging in such a reckless stunt, but not enough blame has been placed on the idiots who actually show up, jacked up on an out-of-control adrenaline high, and let bullets fly. The cop who pulled the trigger is a seven-year “veteran” of that particular department. Simply, he should be charged with murder. The victim was a 28-year old father of two, for chrissake. It was not a “mistake”, that “will never happen again”. It was plain, clear-cut, murder. Police should not continue to get away with gunning down fathers, in the way that Philip Brailsford got away with murdering a sobbing, compliant Daniel Shaver in a hotel hallway.
Police are armed agents of the State. They hold the power of life or death over all of us; therefore they should be controlled as tightly as possible. When the armed agents of foreign countries murder their own citizens, we are rightfully outraged. Why not here as well, when it’s our own country? When an officer misbehaves, abuses his power, murders those he or she is charged with protecting, they should be punished, and most certainly never allowed near a badge and gun again. Yet most of the police involved in these types of incidents have a history of abuse of power that slowly increases in magnitude, meaning its easy to predict which cop might end up going too far. Brailsford had a history of roughing up people for no reason, yet he got to keep his badge. It’s a virtual certainty that the Wichita cop that murdered the young dad on his doorstep had all the warning signs that were ignored by his department.
And to go slightly off the rails, the SWAT team itself should be abolished. A police force engaging in military cosplay, but with real machine guns, grenades, and tanks, and has no place in a free society. This same force descending on the homes of the innocent, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty, is a clear marker of a Police State. And the automatic defense of murderous police appears to be a clear sign of Stockholm Syndrome.
SWAT teams are deployed over 80,000 times each year within our borders. This means police, armed with weapons appropriate only on a battlefield, kicking down doors, gunning down pets, and generally letting bullets fly any which way. And with no accountability. Which means it will continue to happen. Which means more hideous body cam videos like the one depicting Daniel Shaver’s murder by the psychotically calm Brailsford. It could end now, if only civilians gained control of their police force, the way it should be in a free society.
